Foodie Naija Update (Food Security: The Challenge Of Our Time)

For any nation to achieve tiger
economy, the benchmark of
economy development, it must
properly set her agriculture
mechanism in motion within the ambit of limited resources
at its disposal.

This entails
agriculture growth of any nation does not depend on the total population of such nation nor its yearly budget allocating
to the sector vested on the kind of austerity major taking by such nation.

Taking austerity measure by
government has become necessary in order for such
country to overcome the growing threads of both natural and artificial challenges
confronting agriculture activities.

Natural force could
be as result of shortage of rainfall that will lead to
drought, formation of gully erosion in farm lands due to the agents of denudation to mention but few.

The artificial problem may occurred as a result by man
through bush burning, lack of
proper weeding of farms regularly, lack of application of
fertilizer or farmyard manure as well as problems of food
storage and preservation of
farm produceafter harvesting.

Although, even the so called world super powers like
America, France, Britain, Japan and host of other have not just made roaring success vis-à-vis
food security on the platter of gold, rather through taking
austerity measured in
checkmating the growing threads of hunger and starvation.

In an interview in New Nigeria dated 17th July 2012, former minister of petroleum and
elders state man in Borno, Alhaji Shettima Ali Monguno
said, most of the developed nation particularly America
offers substantial amount of subsidy to it farmers in its
yearly budget in other to boost their moral, he further said that government 0f such nation
usually organizing workshops,
seminars so as to exposes farmers into rudiments of Modern farming technology

In a related development Ali
kura modu, a veteran farmer and also staff with the ministry
of agriculture said the country has long way to go in order to
be able to keep the wolf away from the nation doors. Modu
further said that aside government at all level is not
properly given must attention toward agriculture in term of
subsidy not to even talk or buying and preserving of farm
produce from the farmers.

This ugly trend according to modu
forced many farmers to be selling their farm produce after
harvesting at low price, especially the perishable ones.
You see unlike developed nation word like America,
government normally adopts austerity measure against food
shortage by encouraging farmers through it subsidy on
agricultural farming.

More so government usually buys farm
produce from farmers at
reasonable prices at the end of each farming season, proses and preserved for future use.’’
Let take a retrospective looks at
early’s fifties and sixties from the era of first republic to
military regime of murtala / obasanjo ‘s their government
then came up with good polities and programmers that
taken the agriculture sector to higher pedestal take for
instance operation feed the nation of obasanjos’s military
regime and the green
revolution have no doubt cock-a-hoop for the nation in terms of food security.

It was a period of hey days in that the country then begins to export both food and cash crops such as ground nuts,
beans cotton, cocoa,
pineapples, pawpaw, timbers and cassava and so on to others part of the world.

Dark cloud begins to loom the agriculture sector in Nigeria
after the victory of shagari’s
administration in second republic where most Nigeria
including stake holders in farming thrown in the towel of the profession to dogs and opted for oil business in other
to get easy money.

This ugly trend was the major tool in
trade that thrown the nation’s then object poverty due to
hunger and starvation before
buhari’s military regime stroked in.

However, even abangida’s military administration came
up with good policies and programmers that if subsequently follow by others
government would have take for instance for IBB military administration policies like
directorate of food, road, rural,
infrastructure (DFRRI) peoples bank, Nigeria agriculture
cooperative bank (NACB) and national directorate of employment (NDE) have no doubt added impetus on our nation agriculture.

According to Alhaji kaduna ayetaran farmer told this writer on phone that if government want to achieve virile food
security there is need to revive all the food wire house across the country such as the, kano pyramid and add additional ones.

More so government need to overhaul
the gombe tomatoes
processing factory and constructed modern ones across the country so as to
avoid scarcity. We have be abounded land fertile for agriculture, if we fully emberk on agriculture in lung
run I believed we can even supply food to most of the Africa nation in commercial
quantities. Look at chad basic alone if properly utilize in farming can even feed half of the nation